1 882.] Anthropology. 413 



the month Pax, which accounts for the repeated introduction of 

 the character for this month in the inscription. 



The four characters by the side of the upright of the cross are 

 the symbols of four days, each with the numeral five attached, 

 and correspond to the day columns of the Manuscript Troano. 



The whole inscription is doubtless a religious calendar relating 

 chiefly to the festival mentioned. I call attention here to the fact 

 that a reduced and imperfect copy of this cross is found on the 

 back of one of the Copan statues ; see middle plate between pages 

 156 and 157, Stephen's Travels in Central America, Harper's 

 edition, 1877.— C. Thomas. 



Major Powell's First Annual Report. — Within a few days 

 a handsome volume has been placed in our hands, entitled; First 

 annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, by J. W. Powell, Director. 

 Washington, Government Printing Office, 1881, xxxvi, 603 pp., 

 gr. in 8vo, with 1 map, 346 figures. 



The report of Major Powell, which occupies 86 pages consists 

 of an account of the work done and in progress by the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, and the following papers by Major Powell : 



On the Evolution of Language, pp. 3-8. 



The Mythology of the North A ttis, pp. 10-52. 



On limitations to the use of sonic: anthropologic data, pp. 73-86. 



The succeeding pages of the volume are occupied with the 

 following monographs : 



. a c gU pm ing; n p g p U, 575^62 USCnPtS 

 US Mess™. J. S.^ A. stGatc^lTs^^RS. 



No more important contribution to the science of anthropol- 

 ogy has ever been made than the volume before us. Every con- 

 tributor, Powell, Yarrow, Royce, Mallery, Pilling, Dorsey, Gat- 

 schet and Riggs, excepting Professor Holder), is facile prince ps in 

 the subject of which he treats, and no one who is at all familiar 

 with the vague methods in vogue respecting the decipherment of 

 Central Amei < ill withhold from the astrono- 



mer the credit which he deserves for applying rigid scientific meth- 

 ods in a new horizon. 



In its form and preparation, the volume is faultless. It is royal 

 octavo in size, printed upon cream calendered paper. The illus- 

 trations have no parallel in modern anthropological works, except 



